Copyright's fair use doctrine and digital data
Communications of the ACM
Cult of Information
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One's right to read a newspaper in any conceivable idiosyncratic manner is not questioned. For historical reasons, many people are blind to this right when it comes to other media, such as television, radio, and the World Wide Web. When a signal is transmitted freely, accompanied by begging that people tune in, it seems untenable to charge viewers with copyright violations if they look at the signal, or portions thereof. "Rebroadcasting" is illegal, but anything that happens between legally acquiring information and privately viewing that information is harmless.